2017–18 KHL season

2017–18 KHL season
2017–18 KHL season
League	Kontinental Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	21 August 2017 – 22 April 2018
Number of games	56
Number of teams	27
Regular season
Continental Cup winner	SKA Saint Petersburg
Top scorer	Ilya Kovalchuk
Western champions	CSKA Moscow
Western runners-up	SKA Saint Petersburg
Eastern champions	Ak Bars Kazan
Eastern runners-up	Traktor Chelyabinsk
Gagarin Cup
Champions	Ak Bars Kazan
Runners-up	CSKA Moscow
Finals MVP	Justin Azevedo
KHL seasons
	← 2016–17 2018–19 →

The 2017–18 KHL season was the tenth season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The season started on 21 August 2017 and ended on 22 April 2018.

The league accommodated a 33 day Olympic break, to allow its players to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in February.

Team changes

The Croatian club Medveščak Zagreb relocated back to the Austrian Hockey League, and Russian club Metallurg Novokuznetsk was relegated to the Supreme Hockey League, to bring the total number of KHL teams to 27.

March 2018 KHL announced that two teams going to drop out after this season and next season have 25 teams. Yugra and Lada Togliatti are the teams that will not continue in KHL.

Divisions and regular season format

In this season, like in the 2016–17 season, each team will play every other team once at home and once on the road, giving a total of 52 games (26 at home, 26 on the road), plus 4 additional games (2 at home, 2 on the road) played by each team against rival clubs from its own conference. Thus, each team played a total of 56 games in the regular season.^[1]

How the teams are divided into divisions and conferences is shown in the table below.^[2]

Western Conference	Eastern Conference

Bobrov Division	Tarasov Division	Kharlamov Division	Chernyshev Division
Dinamo Minsk	CSKA Moscow	Ak Bars Kazan	Admiral Vladivostok
Dinamo Riga	Dynamo Moscow	Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg	Amur Khabarovsk
Jokerit	HC Sochi	Lada Togliatti	Avangard Omsk
SKA Saint Petersburg	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	Barys Astana
Slovan Bratislava	Severstal Cherepovets	Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk	HC Kunlun Red Star
Spartak Moscow	Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod	Traktor Chelyabinsk	Salavat Yulaev Ufa
	Vityaz Podolsk	Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk	Sibir Novosibirsk

League standings

Western Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	SKA Saint Petersburg	56	40	7	4	5	227	97	+130	138	Advance to Gagarin Cup Playoffs^[a]
2	CSKA Moscow	56	35	9	1	11	175	89	+86	124	Advance to Gagarin Cup Playoffs^[a]
3	Jokerit	56	29	4	8	15	151	108	+43	103	Advance to Gagarin Cup Playoffs
4	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl	56	26	9	3	18	148	129	+19	99
5	Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod	56	23	6	8	19	116	127	−11	89
6	HC Sochi	56	22	7	7	20	130	138	−8	87
7	Spartak Moscow	56	22	7	5	22	153	146	+7	85
8	Severstal Cherepovets	56	18	9	11	18	131	145	−14	83
9	Dynamo Moscow	56	19	9	5	23	134	139	−5	80
10	Dinamo Minsk	56	20	5	3	28	112	129	−17	73
11	Vityaz Podolsk	56	17	4	8	27	131	160	−29	67
12	Slovan Bratislava	56	15	3	7	31	119	187	−68	58
13	Dinamo Riga	56	9	7	9	31	105	153	−48	50

Updated to match(es) played on 1 March 2018. Source: KHL
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) a higher number of wins in the regular time; 3) a higher number of wins in overtime and shootouts; 4) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) drawing of lots.
Notes:

^ Teams leading a division hold one of the first two places of their conference.

Eastern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	OTW	OTL	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Ak Bars Kazan	56	30	2	6	18	158	126	+32	100	Advance to Gagarin Cup Playoffs^[a]
2	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	56	26	5	5	20	151	139	+12	93	Advance to Gagarin Cup Playoffs^[a]
3	Traktor Chelyabinsk	56	26	7	4	19	129	121	+8	96	Advance to Gagarin Cup Playoffs
4	Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg	56	25	6	8	17	165	137	+28	95
5	Metallurg Magnitogorsk	56	24	8	7	17	150	135	+15	95
6	Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk	56	27	3	7	19	135	135	0	94
7	Avangard Omsk	56	22	7	8	19	146	116	+30	88
8	Amur Khabarovsk	56	21	8	9	18	132	141	−9	88
9	Sibir Novosibirsk	56	23	8	2	23	136	135	+1	87
10	Barys Astana	56	19	5	7	25	148	164	−16	74
11	Admiral Vladivostok	56	16	5	5	30	120	145	−25	63
12	Kunlun Red Star	56	15	4	8	29	103	146	−43	61
13	Lada Togliatti	56	12	4	6	34	105	149	−44	50
14	Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk	56	7	10	7	32	93	167	−74	48

Updated to match(es) played on 1 March 2018. Source: KHL
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) a higher number of wins in the regular time; 3) a higher number of wins in overtime and shootouts; 4) goal difference; 5) number of goals scored; 6) drawing of lots.
Notes:

^ Teams leading a division hold one of the first two places of its conference.

Gagarin Cup playoffs

Conference Quarterfinals			Conference Semifinals			Conference Finals			Gagarin Cup Finals

1	Ak Bars	4

8	Amur	1
			1	Ak Bars	4

			5	Metallurg Mg	1
2	Salavat Yulaev	4

7	Avangard	3
						1	Ak Bars	4
Eastern Conference
						3	Traktor	0
3	Traktor	4

6	Neftekhimik	1
			2	Salavat Yulaev	3

			3	Traktor	4
4	Avtomobilist	2

5	Metallurg Mg	4
									E1	Ak Bars	4

									W2	CSKA	1
1	SKA	4

8	Severstal	0
			1	SKA	4

			4	Lokomotiv	1
2	CSKA	4

7	Spartak	0
						1	SKA	2
Western Conference
						2	CSKA	4
3	Jokerit	4

6	Sochi	1
			2	CSKA	4

			3	Jokerit	2
4	Lokomotiv	4

5	Torpedo	0

Final standings

Rank	Team
1	Ak Bars Kazan
2	CSKA Moscow
3	SKA Saint Petersburg
4	Traktor Chelyabinsk
5	Jokerit
6	Lokomotiv Yaroslavl
7	Metallurg Magnitogorsk
8	Salavat Yulaev Ufa
9	Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg
10	Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk
11	Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod
12	Avangard Omsk
13	Amur Khabarovsk
14	HC Sochi
15	Spartak Moscow
16	Severstal Cherepovets
17	Sibir Novosibirsk
18	Dynamo Moscow
19	Barys Astana
20	Dinamo Minsk
21	Vityaz Podolsk
22	Admiral Vladivostok
23	Kunlun Red Star
24	Slovan Bratislava
25	Lada Togliatti
26	Dinamo Riga
27	Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk

Player statistics

Scoring leaders

As of 1 March 2018

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	+/–	PIM
Ilya Kovalchuk	SKA Saint Petersburg	53	31	32	63	+12	26
Nikita Gusev	SKA Saint Petersburg	54	22	40	62	+25	2
Nigel Dawes	Barys Astana	46	35	21	56	+5	26
Linus Omark	Salavat Yulaev Ufa	55	16	39	55	+6	60
Linden Vey	Barys Astana	50	17	35	52	+1	64

Source: KHL

Leading goaltenders

As of 1 March 2018

Player	Team	GP	Min	W	L	SOP	GA	SO	SV%	GAA
Lars Johansson	CSKA Moscow	21	1192:53	15	4	0	26	6	.938	1.31
Mikko Koskinen	SKA Saint Petersburg	29	1718:12	22	4	1	45	5	.937	1.57
Ilya Sorokin	CSKA Moscow	37	2182:35	25	8	4	58	8	.931	1.59
Igor Shestyorkin	SKA Saint Petersburg	28	1592:34	20	4	4	45	7	.933	1.70
Ryan Zapolski	Jokerit	39	2352:26	24	11	4	69	9	.931	1.76

Source: KHL

Awards

Players of the Month

Best KHL players of each month.

Month	Goaltender	Defence	Forward	Rookie
September	Stanislav Galimov (Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod)	Patrik Hersley (SKA Saint Petersburg)	Nigel Dawes (Barys Astana)	Eeli Tolvanen (Jokerit)
October^[3]	Ryan Zapolski (Jokerit)	Nikita Tryamkin (Avtomobilist Jekaterinburg)	Nigel Dawes (Barys Astana)	Eeli Tolvanen (Jokerit)
November^[4]	Vasily Koshechkin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk)	Nikita Tryamkin (Avtomobilist Jekaterinburg)	Zach Boychuk (Slovan Bratislava)	Alexander Petunin (Dynamo Moscow)
December^[5]	Ilya Sorokin (CSKA Moscow)	Oleg Piganovich (Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk)	Alexander Bergström (Sibir Novosibirsk)	Alexander Petunin (Dynamo Moscow)
January^[6]	Pavel Francouz (Traktor Chelyabinsk)	Philip Larsen (Salavat Yulaev Ufa)	Alexander Khokhlachev (Spartak Moscow)	Rafael Bikmullin (Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk)
March^[7]	Ilya Sorokin (CSKA Moscow)	Nick Bailen (Traktor Chelyabinsk)	Justin Azevedo (Ak Bars Kazan)	Vitali Kravtsov (Traktor Chelyabinsk)
April^[8]	Lars Johansson (CSKA Moscow)	Vasili Tokranov (Ak Bars Kazan)	Justin Azevedo (Ak Bars Kazan)	Vitali Kravtsov (Traktor Chelyabinsk)